Treasury Refuses To Surrender Obamacare Documents, Cites "Executive Privilege"

Critics think the IRS is up to funny business

The Treasury Department, rejecting a subpoena threat from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is citing executive privilege in its refusal to turn over documents related to an IRS rule allowing subsidies in federal health insurance exchanges.

"Obamacare" opponents argue that the law only allows subsidies to flow through state-run health exchanges — the new marketplaces for health insurance that are supposed to begin in 2014 — and that the IRS rule oversteps legal bounds. Under the law, the Department of Health and Human Services is supposed to set up federal exchanges in states that don't build their own.